Shop Lighting?

[TXFB.INS]

has anyone every used LED lighting from a back-lit sign as the means to light the office space?

the florescent bulbs are nice but the constant humming gets to me

 

[Gino]

Turn the radio up.

 

[phototec]

You can wet you finger, stck it up in the air over your head and turn it 360° until the humming disappears, then just face that direction while working and you will not hear the humming! (sorry just couldn't help myself).

 

[OldPaint]

the old T-12(big florescent tubes)are going to be phased out in the near future. i installed 2- 8ft(2-4 ft with 4 bulbs total)of T-8. dont hum, dont flicker in the cold and use less power and have more light. i also put in a 4 ft 2 bulb T-5......... in a dark corner these tiny tubes are awsome. they also make a T-5 HIGH INTENSITY..........4 FT and you need the fixture with the high intensity transformer and the T-5 bulbs for this are $$11.00 each!!!!

 

[SightLine]

I'm in progress on converting all of the dual 8' T12 strip fixtures in the install bay part of the shop here. I'm converting them to dual 4' T5HO. Oldpaint is right - the T5 (especially the T5HO) are stunningly bright. Those 2 skinny tiny little 4 foot bulbs put out far more than the 2 fat 8 foot bulbs they replaced. If you shop it around and buy in a bit of quantity they can actually be quite cheap. I'm converting a fixture for less than I could replace the old F96T12 ballast. I've been ordering the parts from warehouse-lighting.com and am spending about $35 per fixture including the bulbs but I am ordering cases of 25 bulbs at a time which does drive them down to just under $5 each (54w 6500k 25 pack). The fixtures that I've converted are stupidly bright and now use about 35 watts less electricity, the bulbs last twice as long, zero humming, no flicker, near instant cold starting, and no more having to mess with stupidly long 8 foot bulbs. Another plus - our electric company is giving me a $15 rebate for every fixture I replace. I have about 50 in total to do.

 

[FireSprint.com]

I'm in progress on converting all of the dual 8' T12 strip fixtures in the install bay part of the shop here. I'm converting them to dual 4' T5HO. Oldpaint is right - the T5 (especially the T5HO) are stunningly bright. Those 2 skinny tiny little 4 foot bulbs put out far more than the 2 fat 8 foot bulbs they replaced. If you shop it around and buy in a bit of quantity they can actually be quite cheap. I'm converting a fixture for less than I could replace the old F96T12 ballast. I've been ordering the parts from warehouse-lighting.com and am spending about $35 per fixture including the bulbs but I am ordering cases of 25 bulbs at a time which does drive them down to just under $5 each (54w 6500k 25 pack). The fixtures that I've converted are stupidly bright and now use about 35 watts less electricity, the bulbs last twice as long, zero humming, no flicker, near instant cold starting, and no more having to mess with stupidly long 8 foot bulbs. Another plus - our electric company is giving me a $15 rebate for every fixture I replace. I have about 50 in total to do.

Can you take some pics and link to the parts you're using. So you're using 8' T8 fixtures and converting them to 4' T5 Fixtures? This is interesting...

 

[SightLine]

Can you take some pics and link to the parts you're using. So you're using 8' T8 fixtures and converting them to 4' T5 Fixtures? This is interesting...

Bulbs - http://www.warehouse-lighting.com/s...5-CRI-G5-Base-High-Output-25-Pack-4-Foot.aspx
Ballasts - http://www.warehouse-lighting.com/b...-120-277-high-power-factor-program-start.aspx
Retrofit Bracket Kits - http://www.warehouse-lighting.com/s...rip-Retrofit-Kit-2-Lamps-x-F54T5-10-Pack.aspx

Now - when divided out the per fixture cost is just a hair over $36 each to convert. That being said - my existing fixtures had huge reflectors on them which I just re-used. At a minimum you would at least need the existing strip light can and either reflectors or basic covers. On mine the reflectors are the covers. The reflectors were pretty dirty but they cleaned up beautifully. Ultimately for me this was a lot more cost effective than any sort of LED conversion which would have been a LOT more expensive with a much longer payback. The ballasts mounted in the existing fixture cans right where the original mounted and for the most part I was able to clip off and reuse the existing wire in the can to connect the new tombstones and ballast up. The conversion is surprisingly easy - cleaning the original reflectors takes nearly as long. You simply remove the existing bulbs, covers (or reflectors), then remove the existing ballast, the center cover support, and the 2 end brackets that hold the original tombstones. The new center and end brackets are "bend to fit" and have grooves to make it simple. They come with self drilling screws, you just bend them into a U shape of the right width, insert the new T5 tombstones in the holes in them, then mount the new ballast and connect the wires up to the ballanst and new tombstones, then screw the new brackets to the existing can. Then you just put the covers or reflectors back on and put bulbs in. Hard to photograph them on and show the difference. The one on the left is converted, the one on the right is not converted. In person the difference is downright dramatic. The second shot shows a converted fixture with the tiny new bulbs in.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Very cool. Thank you for sharing! I'll be holding onto this post for a future project.

 

[SightLine]

Also for any of you considering replacing, converting/retrofitting any older inefficient lighting - make sure to check with your power company and state to see if there are any incentive programs. While converting the fixtures myself is pretty low cost at about 35 bucks each - on top of that the power company is giving me $15 back for each one I convert. There is some paperwork and documentation required but it really was pretty simple. I already confirmed with them that what I'm doing is acceptable and approved. I wanted to be sure since I'm doing it all myself - they are used to places having an electrical contractor do everything and submitting the paperwork.

For our power company they have a page on their website http://www.sceg.com/en/small-business/energywise/rebates-and-incentives/lighting/default.htm

You have to do a good bit of digging to figure out the terminology and whatnot to determine exactly what does and does not qualify. At about 50 of them to do the rebate alone is $750.00 which is nearly half of what its costing me to convert them. Then I'll be saving on my bill too due to each fixture using about 35 or so less watts.

 

[FireSprint.com]

This reminds me. Here in Omaha, the power company doesn't charge us sales tax on the power consumed on our production floor. The electricity is an input on a product that we resell and therefore, we don't pay sales tax on that. Because our production floor uses over 51% of the power consumed in our shop, everything connected to that meter is also sales tax free.

We also don't pay sales tax on the purchase or installation of manufacturing equipment.

You might check with your power companies and sales tax authority in your states as well.

 

[SightLine]

Small update.... I have switched suppliers. The retrofit kits I was getting - turns out to get the rebate from my utility they must be UL listed and those other retrofit kits were not. I actually just ordered enough to retrofit ALL of them from http://www.prolighting.com

I actually got them to give me a custom quote since I am ordering over a grand in stuff. Rick from there took good care of me and even matched prices on the lamps I found at 1000bulbs.com and the ballast prices from Warehouse-lighting.com. ProLighting does not even normally stock Eiko lamps but they are a dealer for them. Essentially I am getting the Epco 14065 Retrofit Kits (UL Listed and even Made in the USA) for $9 each, a couple of bags of the quarter turn clips (Epco 14085), the Espen VE254MVHRP ballasts for $18 each, and on the lamps I'm going with a combination of the Eiko T5HO 6500k in both 54 watt and 49 watt. Since the 54 watt ones are so dang bright I figure I can save a few bucks on energy usage and make every other one a "energy saver" 49 watt lamp. I'm getting the lamps at $2.70 each. I cannot of course guarantee ProLighting will give you the same pricing. Mine is based on a decent sized order. But you could always get the lamps from 1000bulbs, the ballasts from Warehouse-lighting, and the retrofit kits from ProLighting. I pretty much asked if they would match the pricing so I could just order everything from one place instead of 3 different places. Also - the Eiko lamps are rated for 25000 hours and have a CRI of 85 and the ballasts have a power factor of .98 which is pretty dang good!

Also keep in mind - these are for your run of the mill 8 foot strip fixtures which should be about 4.24" to 5" wide. Most existing fixtures just have a plain white cover over the channel which will reflect the light pretty well. Mine actually all already had big wide reflector covers - still plain white though. I needed the extra quarter turn clips because the existing reflector/covers were designed to only use one clip in the middle - the outside ends slipped into a notch on the original end brackets. So I'm having to drill a hole in the one end for a second quarter turn clip. My utility also re-classified the rebate category for the retrofits I'm doing and the rebate went up to $20 per fixture.

All in all - (I do have a scissor lift which makes things a lot easier) the full conversion of one fixture including taking the existing covers back down to the floor to clean them and drill the one hole takes about 15 to 20 minutes each. In the end I'm now at about $34.50 (all parts and shipping) per fixture to retrofit them less the $20 rebate putting me at about a real end cost of about $15 per fixture AND if all 50 are on (and using one 54w and one 49w each versus 2 old 2x75w lamps) I'm also saving about 2350 watts of electricity or about 47 watts per fixture.

 

[Gene@mpls]

I am contemplating a new building (and buildout) and after reading this thread I just went to Menards and looked at fixtures and bulbs for reference. There were lots of
T8 bulbs and very few T5 and T5HO bulbs. After reading a bit on the internet it seems that the T5 should be mounted at above a 14' height and that the T8 is better at
less than 14'. I will be dealing with 8' ceilings (suspended) in a fairly large office/work area and also 16' ceilings in the install / storage area. Just preliminary thoughts and looking for advise... not trying to stir up people. Thanks Gene

 

[SightLine]

The T5HO lights are better for higher ceilings. Where I am using those I have 14' and 18' ceilings. They also have non high output T5 and of course T8. T5 is the newer kid on the block and the skinniest bulbs. They are a little tougher to find locally but Lowes and Home Depot and other places do stock them now. For lower 8' drop ceilings with troffer fixtures T8 might be an easier to find retrofit since you can pretty much just swap the ballast and rewire the sockets as needed. I also have about 30 4 bulb 4 foot T12 troffer fixtures in drop ceilings and that is what I plan on doing with those - converting them to T8. Possibly even reducing some of them to 2 bulb.

 

[Gene@mpls]

Thank you Sightline- that was kind of my read on it as well. It sounds like you have done your homework. Thanks Gene